


Before the Universe Ends

by Ysavvryl



Category: Star Ocean: The Second Story | Second Evolution
Genre: Brainwashing, Fix-It, M/M, Nedian History, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-02
Updated: 2019-05-02
Packaged: 2020-02-15 19:55:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,789
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18676381
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ysavvryl/pseuds/Ysavvryl
Summary: Vesper knows a lot of buzzwords for brainwashing, so he knows something isn't quite right with the direction Dr. Lantis wants to take them.





	Before the Universe Ends

**Author's Note:**

  * For [The_Exile](https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Exile/gifts).



Vesper (civilian control agent)

Priorities: pacify rebelling civilians, re-educate civilians on being citizens of Nedian Empire, obey Dr. Lantis, obey NDF, be nice to Filia

Check: meticulous

Decus (strategic fighter)

Priorities: advise other Wise Men to the best of combined abilities, defeat enemies of the Nedian Empire, obey Dr. Lantis, obey NDF, be nice to Filia

Check: weak to water

* * *

It was a damp foggy morning, with thick gray clouds turning so much to shadows.  In this city full of brick fences and buildings, it made it even easier to pass through unnoticed, for the most part.  “Can you tone down your fire any further?” Vesper asked quietly.

“I’m doing my best,” Decus said, waving a hand in front of his face again.  Small flames off his body lit up the fog and burned off a little of it.  It could make others notice them.  “Bah, I hate being soggy.”

“It’s just fog,” he said, holding up a hand.  They were outside the target location.

“Any degree of soggy,” he specified, then pointed to the entrance and mouthed, “This place?”

Vesper nodded.  “Don’t be whiny; it’s beneath you.”

“Hey, if you think this is whiny, you haven’t heard anything yet,” Decus said, closing his eyes.  He’d be doing the same thing Vesper was: scanning the area ahead with magic.

There were a pair of guards ahead, alert on hearing them.  However, they lacked protection from magic and they were taking the conversation to mean that they weren’t a threat.  Fools, they should be more cautious.  Decus glanced at him and nodded.  Vesper nodded back, then snapped his fingers in casting a spell.  With the guards asleep and paralyzed (so they stayed standing), Decus went ahead and searched the guards.  He came up with a pair of ID cards and handed one to him so that the security system wouldn’t immediately label them as intruders.  They then went inside the hologram broadcasting studio.

The security system might not notice, but there were still dozens of the Miridians working inside who would notice that they didn’t belong.  Vesper already knew where they were going, having memorized the building’s layout from the city hall records.  Keeping quiet, he pointed out the ways as they both kept alert to what the holocast station workers were doing.  They had to duck into a bathroom once to let three Miridians pass by unwittingly.  Otherwise, they were unobstructed.

In the main control room, there was one man keeping the current holocasts running smoothly.  After a moment, they both agreed that he seemed to be busy and entered.  The man absentmindedly waved at the door opening.  “Hey, could you get me some more coffee?”

Decus darted over and clapped his hand over the man’s mouth, forcing him to stay in his chair.  “Sorry, we ain’t your gofers,” he said, not letting him see anything of them but the fire dancing in front of his eyes off Decus’ hand.

Vesper noticed a ‘Do Not Disturb’ sign nearby and set it to hang on the door.  Then he shut it and inscribed a heraldic seal there.  “There, now this room is truly soundproofed and no one will bother us, aside from this one,” he said, turning back to them.

Staying behind the chair, Decus turned it around and moved his hands to clamp onto the man’s shoulders.  “He can’t be much trouble for you.”

“Wh-what are you doing?” the man asked, tensing and sweating as his kind’s response to fear.

“We are part of God’s Ten Wise Men, and we’re here to settle the rebelliousness of your people with some reeducation,” Vesper said, moving right in front of him at a distance that would be unsettling.

“Huh?”  He seemed close to screaming.  That would be unpleasant even with the seal in place, so Vesper started tailoring a curse on him.

Leaning closer, Decus said, “He means we’re gonna brainwash all you barbarians because your brains are clearly in need of it with your rebellion against Nede.  I bet you’re just full of naughty filthy thoughts, aren’t you?”

The man stammered for a bit, caught with guilt over the accusation.  Sighing, Vesper put his hand on the man’s forehead, forcing him to turn his attention back to him.  Once he had eye contact, the curse set in place and left him stunned.  “There, he’ll be happy with whatever happens and will quietly do what he’s told.  You may let him go.”

“Heh, so you figured out another way to get people stoned then,” Decus said, cackling as he let the man go.  “All right, but I don’t think you really needed me here.”

“Let me take that chair while you go sleep over there,” Vesper said, waving the man off.  He nodded and went to sleep on the floor.  “Sure, but this way they won’t realize anything’s happened for a while.  And I will need to put my full attention towards crafting this magic, so I need somebody to keep watch in case they ignore the sign.”  He sat in the chair and checked over the controls.

“If I go outside this room, I will draw attention,” he said, being serious now that the Miridian wasn’t a factor.

Connecting psychically to the equipment, he changed a group of screens to show security footage on this floor.  “There, you don’t have to leave the room.  If you could delete the images of us being here, that’d save me some time.”

“That’s basic stuff, gotcha.”  Decus took another chair and began work on that.

Of the rebelling planets, this was one of those with a higher civilian population.  Other frontier planets had a small enough society that Vesper could personally subjugate the non-combatants and bring them into line.  But the planet of Miridia had moved a large group of their citizens to this world, Arkesa 2, in order to alleviate overpopulation.  The other Wise Men had advocated just wiping out entire cities of the barbarians to scare them into behaving.  Vesper had other ideas.  He was placing subliminal and subtle curses into the holocast station’s signals, to sedate the populace and ingrain them with obedience towards Nede.  If this worked, he could place the same curses into more widespread signals to sap all the fight out of the other worlds.  Soldiers were often protected from this kind of magic, but civilians would not have access to such protection.

Cyril objected to this plan, claiming that it was too easy.  The main reason that Vesper had been allowed to try here was because Decus argued that controlling civilians was Vesper’s job.  And with their protection, there would still be plenty of rebellious soldiers, mercenaries, and would-be heroes for the rest of them to fight.  The others had agreed that fighting civilians was the part that was actually ‘too easy’, so they were all for the subliminal sedation.  Thankfully, Cyril had given in.

Before activating it, Vesper checked over the construction of his curse.  Then he checked over it again; he didn’t like failing at things.  It met with his satisfaction, so he activated it, then checked yet again for how noticeable this curse might be.  It had to appear like normal programming within the system, enough that the station’s automated defenses and any other workers didn’t notice until the curse was in full effect.  Seeing that was fine, he checked on another screen that was showing a live program.  Vesper could adjust his sight to see his magic at work; only the other Wise Men would have the capability of seeing it if they checked.  The psychic message it was sending was lengthy and repetitive.  But holocasters were so ubiquitous in all civilized places that his message should get through to the vast majority of the civilian populous within a week, perhaps only a couple days if he was lucky.

“All right, I’ve got it in the system,” he said to Decus.

“Good, then it’ll just take a few days to set in?”

“Reasonably speaking, a week,” he corrected.  “Then we’ll have Arkesa in a conflict between civilians and soldiers.”

“Beautiful!  Oh here, I snagged this from the doctor.”  He tossed over an injection packet.

Vesper checked on it; it wasn’t identified, but the signature was clearly from Dr. Lantis.  It had some heraldic signatures that could be interpreted.  But it was much faster to ask, “What is it?”

“The doc calls it heraldic efficiency nanobiological enhancer,” Decus said, getting out of his chair.  “In plain speak, it’s a permanent power booster for magic.”

Considering the name, he said, “Almost.  I would assume that what it really does is interface with the heraldic runes on an atomic level to eliminate some wasteful processes in converting mana into spells.  Our spells would appear more powerful, but actually they’d be more efficient.  You get more power from the same level of energy; lowering the mana you put into it would put your spells back to your original ability.”

“Same thing,” he said, leaning on the back of the chair Vesper was in.

“Thanks, is he distributing them now? I doubt it would take full effect immediately.”  He opened up the packet to inject it.

“Nah, he had them stockpiled,” Decus said.  “Cyril found them first and wasn’t going to tell anyone, but I found him out with some blackmail.  Not what I was looking for, but hey, not gonna turn them down.”

“But why would Lantis have them if he didn’t intend to give them to us?” Vesper asked.  There was something odd about this.

“I think he meant to, but the Defense Force pushed him to deploy us quickly so the rebellions could be squashed quickly.  So he sent us out at sufficient power, not full power.  These booster injections were supposed to be one of the last steps.”

“I bet that irritates him,” he said.  Lantis had even included fireproof bandages for the injection site, although Decus claimed they weren’t fireproof enough and never used those.  Vesper did use them because nothing would be worse than succumbing to an infection.  Such things were more likely on these outer frontier worlds.  “It’s good that you’d distribute them to the rest of us; Cyril wouldn’t have let one out of his grasp if he could keep it secret.”

“I’m not, just splitting up what I snagged from Cyril to you and me,” Decus said.

Just them?  That was strange enough that Vesper turned the chair around to look at him.  “Wouldn’t it be better if you gave at least one round to the team’s main fighters?  Ruprecht and Nicolas could probably use some as well to enhance their spying capability.  You’re the strategist so you would need it for solo missions, but I just handle the civilians.”

Decus waved it off like the fog earlier.  “Meh, sufficient capacity is sufficient to them; they’ve already proven that.  It is technically sufficient for us too, but you see, you’re my favorite.  I want to see you at your full capability.”

“Your favorite?” Vesper asked, mystified at that.  “What does that mean?  We’ve been deployed for six years and we work well together, but we should be able to work with any of the others well.”

“Well just because we work well with them doesn’t mean I like them.”  He chuckled at some thought, then asked, “Hey, do you think I’m hot jailbait?”

Vesper stared at him.  Sometimes he acted ridiculous to be funny, but this, “What kind of sense does that question make?”

“You could answer it at least, even if you think it’s a joke,” he said.

Was he joking?  Vesper asked, “Do you want a legal answer or a short one?”

Raising an eyebrow, Decus asked, “You have a legal answer?”

“Of course I do,” he said.  Since he asked that, he went on.  “I’m supposed to educate these rebels on how to be proper citizens, so of course I had to be given lengthy legal knowledge.  We’re synthetic hominoids registered as heraldic bioweapons.  Due to implanted knowledge, we’re considered fully mature adults upon activation.  But there are a few legal issues that have been judged to require real experiences, such as age of consent.  In that case, the legal age is set at one year for synthetic hominoids in the sex profession and three years for those who are not.  So no, you are not jailbait since you’ve been activated for eight years.”

“Guess that’s good to know,” he said.  “But better to listen to you explain it.  So do you think I’m hot?”

“What is this about?” Vesper asked, still baffled at what he could be thinking.

“You aren’t getting what I’m saying?  Pay attention now.”  He then leaned down and kissed him.

It was such a pleasant shock that Vesper didn’t let him stop for a couple of minutes.

* * *

‘Are you off duty?  I’m back at the lab.’

‘No, sorry, we’re breaking into a fort right now.  A total yawner if you ask me, though I could use a break even from this.’

‘Have you had some water to drink in the past few hours?’

‘Uh, what if I said no?’

Grumbling, Vesper wrote his return message.  ‘How many times do I have to keep telling you this?  I know you don’t like water, but even you get dehydrated.  Drink some damn water.’

‘Okay Mom, geez, I’ll drink some damn water.’

“Oh, Vesper!” a cheery voice came from one of the doors.  It was Filia, still dressed in her school uniform.  She skipped right over and sat by him.  “Are you off-duty right now?  I could use some help.”

He’d hoped to get some time with Decus.  Since he couldn’t, this should be fine.  “Yes, what’s the matter?”

She smiled more.  “Thanks!  See, some of my school friends invited me out to do some clothes shopping.  But of course, Daddy doesn’t want me to go out of the lab without a guard.  My school guard went off to take a nap, so would you come along with us?”

Thinking of something, he nodded.  “Sure, but would you help me convince Decus to be better about drinking water?”

“Is he still being fussy about that?” Filia asked, worried for him.  “Sure, do you already have a conversation open with him here?”

“Yes,” Vesper said, then noticed that Decus had sent another message.

‘I know you nag me because you care, and I love you, so I got myself some water.  I’ve even got proof, hah!’  And he’d sent a picture of himself with an opened water bottle.

“Is he joking here?” Filia asked, surprised at the message.

“No, he’s being serious, for him,” he said.  “I was hoping he’d have time for a date today, but no, he’s busy.  Maybe another day.”

“I hope so,” she said, then wrote a message to Decus.  As the datapad identified her as the writer, it sent, ‘(Filia) Good, make it a habit now.  And I’ll talk with Daddy and see if he’ll give you two time for a date since you can’t come back now.’  Then she got up.  “I’m gonna go change and put my school things away, be back in a bit!”

“I’ll be waiting,” Vesper said, since he didn’t think he needed anything more to accompany Filia as her guard.

Before she got back, Decus replied, ‘Woohoo, thanks Filia!  You’re a sweetie.’

‘She is.  I’m going to be her bodyguard instead today; hope you don’t mind.  Take care of yourself.’

‘Sure, I hope we can get back together soon.  Take good care of our little angel.’

The shopping district Filia and her school friends went to had a number of traditional shops for those who found it a better experience.  But the girls wanted to go to a fashion fab-lab, where holograms projected styles onto customers wearing a bodysuit, then custom made the pieces for it in seconds.  In most cases, he wouldn’t be allowed in the women’s lab.  Since he was there as a guard, the staff allowed him to sit in the main room outside the dressing room the girls used.  Vesper brought up a science fiction novel on his datapad and pretended to read that so that the others there didn’t think he was a pervert for being watchful.

Unfortunately, there was some disagreement that led to the two other girls leaving early.  Vesper waved one of the store assistants over to let him into the room to check on Filia.  She was crying, dressed in an outfit that seemed unlike her.  The assistant went over to her with him.  “Oh no dear, did something happen?” the assistant asked, although it was clear that something had.

“Um, they said the outfit I liked was bad, but I don’t like this one they chose for me,” she said, trying to rub her face dry.

His job was to deal with civilians, but usually not like this.  “How about you get the outfit you liked and wear that?” he suggested.  “We can go over to the ice cream parlor afterwards since they went on their way."

“Okay, thanks,” she said, forcing a little smile.  It’d take more to cheer her up, so Vesper just nodded and left her with the assistant to get her new clothes.  He already knew that the assistant had no weapons or poisons on her, and there was no other way out of this room.  Even out of sight here, Filia was safe.

The outfit she came out with was cute, with an overall dress and butterfly clips in her dark blue hair.  He didn’t think there was anything wrong with it.  As she seemed thoughtful, he left her to that while they went over to get some ice cream.  He usually kept to a strict diet for his required level of fitness.  But he was almost certain that getting a treat like this was normal for cheering up another.  Since this wasn’t normal for him, he took her suggestion of a chocolate strawberry shake to try.

When she seemed calmer, he asked, “What happened with those girls?”

Filia touched the heart-shaped crystal that she wore.  “Well, they said since I got my Stone of Blessings, I should start dressing more like a woman.  But everything they were suggesting didn’t seem right, you know, not the kind of things I’d wear.  They said this was too childish, but I like how it looks on me.  What do you think of this?”

“I’m no judge of fashion, but I think it’s cute,” Vesper said.

“Yeah, there’s nothing wrong with cute,” she said.  “I know Daddy would be okay with it too.  He says I’m good as I am and I don’t need to change.  So, I think this is just fine.”

“He’d know better than me,” he said.

“He hasn’t been the same since Mom became an angel,” she said sadly.  “But I don’t want to make him unhappy.  I’d feel better about this if they hadn’t been so mean about it.”

“If they wanted to help you, they did so poorly to make you cry.”  He took a spoonful of the milkshake since it was thick; it was good, actually.  “Would you like me to teach them a lesson?”

That made her laugh a little.  “No, you don’t have to.  You and the others fight the bad guys who don’t want peace in the galaxy, so you don’t need to bother with some mean girls.”

“Fair enough,” Vesper said.  Dr. Lantis had told them not to tell her what exactly they did, and there were the NDF non-disclosure agreements to keep.

“Guess I shouldn’t bother with them anymore either if they’re gonna be like that,” Filia said, going to eat her milkshake too.  “Actually, you don’t have a Stone of Blessings.”

“I’m a created being without a parent, so no.”  Parents would give their children a Stone of Blessings in hopes that they had a good life, once the child was fifteen years old.  And once they found the person they wanted to be with for the rest of their lives, they would exchange Stones as a sign of their devotion.  The one Filia wore was a copy of her mother’s since Dr. Lantis didn’t want to part with it.

“That doesn’t seem fair,” she said.  “I don’t think I can get stones for all nine of you today.  But I could get you and Decus one each since you’re already dating.  As long as you wear it for a while, I guess the blessings would still come.”

“It couldn’t hurt,” he said.  “Thanks Filia.”

That worked as she relaxed on hearing that.  “You’re welcome, I always pray for good things to happen for you guys.  And I keep trying to convince Daddy that he ought to treat you nicer.  He’s not a bad guy, he’s just bad at dealing with things that aren’t science or heraldry.  That’s what Mom told me once, at least.”

“He made us to bring peace to the galaxy, so I’m well aware of that,” Vesper said.

Filia was happy to take him into the jewelry story to look for a Stone of Blessings for them both.  Since they had to be ready to fight in their missions (especially for Decus), Vesper suggested rings as they wouldn’t get lost as easily.  A necklace like Filia’s could get snapped off.  From there, it was easy to decide on a fiery red ruby for Decus.  Vesper wasn’t sure what kind of stone would be good for himself, as the magic he used didn’t have a particular stone associate with it.  But Filia thought that a particular stone called angelite was perfect.  It was a creamy blue in color and the Stone of Blessings had to be a gift, so he accepted her choice gratefully.

* * *

Most civilians reacted to being placed in Vesper’s care with fear and horror before being sedated into a state to psychically temper.  This woman glared hard at him with courage and disgust.  “You’re not educating anyone, only tearing down their thoughts until they’re meek and compliant.  That makes you the greatest evil of the batch.”

“Evil doesn’t factor into anything I do,” Vesper replied, looking back at her calmly.  “On the other hand, you rebels are all ungrateful barbarians that should have been left in your primitive states.  We Nedians have given you great advances in technology and society.  We eliminated need for you, freeing you from hunger, disease, and dependence on limited resources.  But instead of seeking peaceful coexistence in exchange for our gifts, you vainly seek to tear us down.  We re simply returning violence with violence, with me being along to limit our violence to precision cuts.”

She spat at him.  “Pah, you’re not after peaceful coexistence!  You’re after total domination of the galaxy, expecting us to play along nicely like perfect little children.  You take out everything that makes us us and replace it with your own bland mindless culture.  Who would agree to a peace like that?”

“You will,” he said.

Briefly, she snarled.  But his curse was already in her.  It grew faster as he kept eye contact with her, and the curse in turn silently pushed her to not break it.  When her snarl weakened and her body relaxed, he knew she was beyond fighting it.

“Besides, I don’t make the decisions on these matters,” Vesper said even though it no longer mattered.  “I just follow orders, as I’m expected to do.  Once you start doing as is expected of you, you’ll find that satisfaction in contentment isn’t so bad.”

He watched her for another minute to be sure she wouldn’t break out any time soon.  Then he sent her away to another part of this makeshift prison of a school.  If he wasn’t being pressed to work with so many civilians, Vesper would have preferred to monitor all of them so the curse set firmly.  The prison guards were locals who he knew were fully converted; he told the one who escorted her to make sure she was monitored closely.  It was unlikely, but it was possible that a being of a defiant will like hers might be able to break out on their own.  Also unlikely, it was possible that such a person might have the required intelligence and heraldic training to undo the reeducation curse in others.  It might not happen, but he wanted to do what he could to prevent that circumstance.

After several more hours of this, Vesper was drained of mana to the point where using Mind Absorber to set the curses in faster wasn’t helping him.  A migraine pounded against his skull and wouldn’t let him focus.  He told the guards to stop bringing him prisoners and took some medicine for the pain.  When that wasn’t enough, he called Decus in to sort out the prisoners and guards so he could sleep.  He slumped into a couch and put a hand over his eyes to rest, although it wasn’t coming easy.

A cold plastic bottle hit him before he realized someone else was in the room.  “Damn man, you look like a mess,” Decus said.

“I feel like one,” Vesper said, uncovering his eyes to grab the bottle before it hit the floor.  “How did you keep this cold?”

“Froze my own hand,” he said, holding up his right hand to show that it was glistening with melting ice rather than spectral flames.  “And lemme tell you, this hurts.  But I wasn’t about to give you hot juice.  I am talented in more than just fire magic.”

“Right, but fire gets the job done more often than not,” he replied, echoing what Decus usually said.

Chuckling he said, “At least you aren’t braindead tired.  I hate to drag you off when you’re feeling rotten, but the doc has ordered us to return to the lab immediately.  You should be able to nap this off there since he says he wants to do some modifications and reprogramming on us.”

He did not want to hurry off like this.  But, orders were orders.  He snapped off the cap and drank some juice; it should restore enough mana to help get rid of the pain at least.  “And we have to drop everything and go?  Last I heard, you guys had a strong hold over most of the planet but were still fighting.”

“Yes, but doc said right away,” Decus said, tugging at him.

Nodding, Vesper got up and took another drink.  “All right.  Lead on, I can barely think right now.”

“We’ll just use the transporter in here, won’t be a problem,” Decus said.  “I told your guards to keep the folks you hadn’t worked with separate from those you had, and under close watch and heavy locks.  Oh, except one woman who they said you wanted close guard over despite being cursed.  I told them to keep that up.”

“Good, she was defiant.”  He should inspect things himself even though he trusted Decus.  But if he did, he wouldn’t be able to give it the proper attention.

Once they got transported back to Nede, Vesper’s head wasn’t pounding as much.  He was still exhausted.  “So what’s the deal?  If he means to brief us, I might not keep awake.”

“From what I heard, the spies caught onto something horrible,” Decus explained.  “Filia’s dead, killed by a batch of rebels that made it out here.”

“Damn, her?”  How had the frontier planet rebels reached here?  “Then I guess he means to upgrade us to his specifications rather than the government’s?”

“Probably, and it gets worse,” he said.  “She actually died a couple weeks back, not recently.  But the Nedian military decided to cover up the whole incident with an information blackout to keep the doc working on the last of us.  So I think he’s thinking, ‘fuck it, we’ll just screw over everyone’, hence the reprogramming so we aren’t super attached to the Defense Force’s checks.  Which is fine by me because the other Nedians have started annoying me too.”  Decus patted Vesper’s shoulder.  “But I’ll bitch over that later.  You go ahead and sleep in a work pod, I’m sure that’ll be fine.”

“Right,” Vesper said, but something bothered him.  “Reprogramming, huh?  I wonder what he really means to do to us.”

“Well that should be as clear as day, shouldn’t it?” Decus said.  “He wants to remove the limiters forced on us to show that he’s not going to let the government undercut everything he does.”

He put a hand on the machine partly to steady himself.  “Right, but, well I use loads of buzzwords for brainwashing all the time because that’s what I do.  This sounds familiar to me.”

“Aw come on, it’s Lantis,” he said.  “He’s got enough pride in us as his masterpieces that he’s not going to do something to fuck us over.  It’s just to remove the limiters that the Nedian government insisted upon; Nicolas had already proven that to everybody.”

He would like to see what was being done.  But yes, it was Dr. Lantis and Vesper was too tired to care.  “Right.  Guess we’ll be fine.  Hey but, this is probably a dumb question, but I’ve been wondering…”

“What is it?”

Taking Decus’ hand that was now steaming rather than frozen or fiery, he asked, “Is it just your hands and head or does your whole body emit flames and your clothes just dampen the rest?”

He smirked and put his other hand over his.  “Heh, want to see for yourself when we get some time together next?”

Vesper smiled back.  “If that’s the case, then we might have to make some time for ourselves instead of waiting on the chance.”

“Sounds good to me.  You get some sleep now; I’ll see if I can twist an arm or two to arrange a special little date.”

Even with that enticing little promise, Vesper’s mind drifted back to concern over what Lantis meant to do to them.  They were his creations, artificially made persons meant to be biological weapons.  But they were persons… and the death of Filia… that felt like gutting the heart of the team, especially for Dr. Lantis.  He cherished his daughter so much and all of the Wise Men had made some time for her when they were in the lab between missions.  With the tragedy and the betrayal, he might just forget…

Vesper drifted off into sleep before he could figure out what the situation was.

* * *

Decus

Priorities: destruction of the universe, obey Dr. Lantis, obey Indalecio, be nice to Filia

Reward stimulus for battle: 40% (change to) 150%

Reward stimulus for using fire: 50% (change to) 100%

Vesper

Priorities: destruction of the universe, obey Dr. Lantis, obey Indalecio, be nice to Filia

Reward stimulus for battle: 10% (change to) 150%

* * *

The whole universe was full of bugs, insignificant little creatures that couldn’t match up to them.  Bitter hatred filled Vesper with an intensity that he’d never felt before with anything.  Even stranger, it was joyful and got stronger when he killed one of those bugs.  He used to be able to keep calm when going about his business.  Now he ended up smiling in a field full of corpses, happily punching the head off someone he petrified so they couldn’t recover.  None of them deserved to live.  In fact, the whole universe was rotten and ought to be eliminated.  They would destroy what futile resistance there was so they could be free to do so.

Well, not everyone was undeserving.  But the gap between the undeserving and deserving was galactic in scale.  They were still going to destroy the universe as that was their purpose now.  With a limited amount of time left and the unexpected ecstasy of that battle, their planned date got forgotten in seeking out more conflict.

When Vesper woke up, he wondered when their next battle was.  Would it be soon?  Would it be an actual challenge?  He wanted it to be both; that had to feel so much better than the pure massacre that happened yesterday, no, the past few days.  He could ignore orders.  After all, Lantis wanted the universe ended.  Surely he wouldn’t mind more carnage while he sorted out how to do so.

This wasn’t like himself.  It felt so good.  But, Vesper wasn’t bloodthirsty.  Battle was simply how one accomplished things and his skill was often proved by not taking battles.  And the rebels were barbarians who needed to be corrected.  They weren’t worthless bugs to squash.  Neither was the Nedian Defense Force.  The NDF might be fools, but they weren’t non-persons.

They were.  They were they were they were they were they were…

Taking a deep breath, Vesper attempted to push aside this strange string of thoughts.  What reason did he have to think like this?  The death of Filia at the hands of rebels and the NDF’s betrayal of them came immediately to mind.  It was proof that those who were worthy of living perished without cause.  So all beings should perish as only the unworthy lived long.  Was that his reason?

Decus was still asleep in the bunk room they were sharing.  Vesper didn’t want to wake him yet, but sat down on the edge of his bed to be near him.  He should savor this time together since the universe would end by their deeds.  But it could be worth it to decline that plan if it meant more time with Decus… no, the universe had to end, it was all unworthy, even themselves.  That was proven by how much he was enjoying this.  And, he enjoyed it because this was what the universe deserved.

“Your thoughts have grown incredibly twisted, Dr. Lantis,” Vesper said quietly.  Now that he identified these thoughts as being implanted, he could recognize the subjugation runes.  They were the same ones he used, after all.  But undoing them from within… he couldn’t do it.  Or could he?  The runes would make him think it was impossible, even though he knew that there were those slim chances that someone could break free from the brainwashing.  In fact, it should be a greater chance because he understood how to manipulate those runes.  It would be impossible… he had to ignore the thought that it was impossible.

“Mmm, are we gonna grill some steak?” Decus mumbled, half-asleep.

“It’s not in the plans, but we could try,” Vesper said.  “Maybe before the universe ends.”

“Hmm?”  It made him wake up more, sitting up and glancing around.  “Where are we?”

Vesper shrugged.  “Not sure, but it’s quiet.  Good morning.”

“G’morning.  Are we going to burn something soon?”

“Who knows.  We should report back in and see.  Should.”

Decus came over to sit by him; he hadn’t slept with his clothes on, so the thing he’d wondered about was clear.  “You sound dismal.”

“I was just thinking over our mission now, and other things because my mind cleared up,” he explained.  “I didn’t join you guys much; is fighting usually this thrilling?”

He shook his head.  “No, but that was amazing.  Never wanted to get in another battle so much.  Hey, we could just wreak some havoc around here.”

As enticing as that was, some of Vesper’s sense remained.  “We should figure out where here is before attacking.  And how Lantis means to destroy the universe; he’ll want us to work on that as quickly as possible, forgoing any time we could have to ourselves.”

That forced him to realize the kind of time they likely had.  “Fuck,” he muttered, but quickly added, “but the universe should be destroyed.  It is unworthy.”

“Of course, that’s what Dr. Lantis has decided,” Vesper said, turning to put an arm around him.  His flames were pleasantly warm, mostly harmless.  “We don’t have orders right now.  We did both forget about that date you asked time for, so we may as well take the time we find.”

Decus gave him a quick kiss, then said, “We should check in with somebody, but…”

“There’s no orders,” he repeated.  “We can do that later.  I want to be with you now.”

“Sounds good to me,” he said, then kissed him again.

When they got back into the lab several hours later, Dr. Lantis was meeting up with Cyril.  They ignored that and went on in; Lantis glanced at them, nodded, then turned back to Cyril.  “That was the plan all along.  We were to have ten Wise Men, not nine.  And I designed eleven, including a secret healer in case something happened to me.  Indalecio will be completed, and soon.”

“But I’m doing a perfectly fine job leading the group now,” Cyril said, dissatisfied.  “We’ve got nearly half the rebelling worlds under control now; we don’t need a different leader.”

“Those you defeated will start banding together to defeat you,” Lantis said.  “Only the most foolhardy of creatures would fail to adapt to such a loss.  Just because you have won so far does not mean you will keep winning.  I’ve made you more powerful with this last augmentation, yet it is not enough.”

“They don’t stand a chance,” Cyril said, glancing over at them.  “And where have you two been?  You failed to report in after the last battle; I was beginning to suspect that you’d deserted.”

“Why would we desert?” Vesper said.  “Especially after swearing our loyalty to Lantis; we are committed now to following him, as he knows how to lead us best.”

“Then what were you doing?” Cyril asked, looking at them suspiciously.

“You don’t need to know that, nor do you want to know,” Decus said with a smirk.

“That makes it sound like you are conspiring against the group,” Cyril said, then quickly added, “and Dr. Lantis.”

“No, hang on,” Lantis said, looking over the three of them.  “You know I read your reports, and sometimes edit them because some of you don’t write cleanly or professionally.”

“Eh heh heh, that’s true,” Decus said sheepishly, fiddling with his flames.

“Hmph, thanks for doing that,” Vesper said, recalling that he had mentioned that first time he’d kissed Decus and made a few other comments about him in reports.

“Whatever you do on your own time is your own business,” Lantis said.  “You may as well enjoy what time you’ve got left.  It’s not important to you, Cyril.  As for you two, since you got back late, you should plan your approach on the next target of the NDF.  Whichever facility you like, just wipe them out at this time.”

“Heh, we could just burn their bases all down to the ground,” Decus said eagerly.

“Whatever works,” Lantis said, not caring about that.

“We could, but we’d better not bore the others,” Vesper said, going over to a computer that already had information on the NDF bases up.

* * *

They could have wiped out all of the NDF.  They’d nearly done so.  But then, Dr. Lantis called them back immediately, just like before.  He briefly introduced them to their new leader, Indalecio (who was strangely silent and emotionless), and then ordered them to get into positions marked around the lab’s Quadratic Sphere.  Vesper tried to figure out what was going on, but then the shells within the Sphere rapidly rotated with complicated runes, and then…

And then…

Eternity Space.

It was an eternity, at least if billions of years counted for eternity.  It was also a tiny moment, being unaware of those billions of years but being aware of… something.  He couldn’t put a word to it.  Frozen in space and time, eternally waiting for a few seconds, aware the others were there and should be in sight.  But they weren’t, at least Vesper wasn’t aware of anything outside of himself for the eternal moment.  If he could properly think to experience it, it might have driven him insane.

But the moment he could think again, he was out of Eternity Space, back in the lab around the Quadratic Sphere.  The space outside the windows, though, it was outer space.  Stars filled the blackness outside, including one that was close enough to cast some faint light into the darkened lab.  Then the power systems kicked the lights on and things almost seemed normal.

Indalecio spoke to them for the first time.  “We will carry out Dr. Lantis’ last wishes, never mind the time that has passed.”  He glanced over them, then up at the brighter star.  “We should be near a solar system with a suitable planet to begin things, the second one if I’m correct.  Decus, Vesper, you two go to the observation room over there to begin that.”

“Yes sir,” Vesper said at the same time as Decus.

He nodded.  “Cyril, please come with me so we may review the general plan.”

“Sure, I know where to look for such plans in his computers,” Cyril said.  If he was still disgruntled about being moved down to second-in-command, he was trying to keep it quiet.

“I know what the plans entail,” Indalecio said, making Cyril frown.  “The rest of you, go separately to inspect the rest of the lab to see how things have fared.  I’m afraid we won’t be in action any time soon, so you may use the simulator for practice if you get bored.”

“Yes sir,” the others said.

“Then you’re dismissed to carry out your duties,” he said, looking to Cyril without caring about his opinions.

There was something familiar to Indalecio; Vesper thought it over as he headed over to the observation room.  He should be a stranger, although it seemed everyone but Cyril already accepted him as their leader.  Perhaps the way he spoke, his indifference… also, he’d sent the two of them off together.  It would make more sense for Decus, Cyril, and Indalecio to be the ones to scan the star system and discuss how plans would go; they were all planners, even though since the reprogramming, Decus had been more hot-headed and less strategic.  Vesper made his own plans, but he had been focused on controlling the civilians.  Yet, he had gone out with the others to attack the NDF bases, as Dr. Lantis ordered.  And he’d enjoyed being in the thick of things, although that was…

Not long after the door shut behind them, Decus grabbed him and hugged him tight.  “Oh gods, that was horrible.”

Vesper hugged him back, trying not to break down (but if it’d be anybody he’d be with, it’d be Decus).  “I know, I never want to experience that again,” he said, shuddering at having his attention brought back to Eternity Space.

It was silent between them for several minutes; the familiar tickle of his flames was reassuring.  Decus eventually shifted to just holding his shoulders.  “Eh-heh, sorry for being clingy.  I don’t mean to be weak, but…” he got embarrassed and clammed up for once.

“It’s fine, I won’t tell anyone else,” Vesper said.  “Besides, I needed that too.”

Nodding, he said, “Let‘s leave it at that.  We’ve got work to do, and maybe a new planet to take over, yeah,” a grin slipped out.

Vesper tried to clamp down on excitement over the thought of invading planets again.  “Right.  Right, our mission now is to destroy the universe.  And Dr. Lantis said that we should enjoy what time we have left.”

“Right, there’s that too,” Decus said, his eyes shifting in thought.  He wasn’t as excited over that.

“It’s something we should keep in mind, and consider,” Vesper said, then headed over to start the star system scan.

Half an hour later, Indalecio came in to check on them.  “How is the scan coming?”

They were both sitting at the console, Decus fiddling with the colors of his flames out of an itch to burn things.  Vesper gestured to the large display.  “It’s done.  You were talking about using the second planet?  It’s inhabited and civilized.”

“That doesn’t matter,” Indalecio said, bringing a chair over to sit by them.  “Their planet is in the right place.  What level of civilization do they have?”

“Still stuck on their homeworld,” Vesper answered.  “Crossing land and seas is an ordeal, no means of air travel or quick long-distance communications.  Although it seems at least one galaxy traveling civilization is around as a spaceship has crashed into one of the continents.  The natives of this planet are trying to understand it; I ordered a closer scan of that area out of curiosity.”

“We need an estimate on the level of the space civilization,” Indalecio said.  “They may attempt to interfere as the plan will take time.”

“How much time?” Decus asked.

“Around a hundred years,” he said.  “We’re moving the artificial satellite of Energy Nede into the path of that planet.  As was in the NDF’s emergency plans, the remainder of the Nedian populace moved onto Energy Nede and locked themselves in.  They can’t affect anything outside their satellite world.  We have the time for our plans provided others don’t interfere.”

Decus slammed his hands into his lap.  “What?  A hundred years?  Are we just going to wait around up here?  Man, that’s boring.”

“Given the low technology of this world, we could install ourselves as manifested gods easily,” Vesper said, having considered that.

Indalecio nodded.  “That is something we could do.  But the lack of conflict will be an issue; you two were the only ones to immediately do as I asked, as I suspected.  Before that, Vesper…”

A touch of magic made his spine tingle.  “Yes sir?” he said automatically.

“You refined your subjugation magic as you used it.  I would like to see what you’ve done to it.”

While the request sounded suspicious, Vesper was compelled to obey.  “Yes…” he said as he made a heraldic form of his spells appear on an unused screen.  “I did not have sufficient time to see how they last over time.  However, I expect that the willpower of the target has the highest factor in defense against subjugation and ability to break out.”

“That would make sense,” Indalecio said, studying the spells.  “Your bloodlust was turned on much too high in the last adjustment, although it was necessary at that stage.  Even when we reach this planet… Expel, it seems… even when we get there, only the initial invasion should require overwhelming force.  Having some civilization on the world, especially if they cannot escape, will add to the sacrifices required for our final goal.  Vesper, you’ve done quite well with these modifications.”

“Thank you,” he said, although he knew this was going to bite him.

And it would immediately, as Indalecio turned to them.  “I require the Quadratic Sphere to be focused entirely on moving the planets now.  As a result, adjusting the rest of you to not tear up everything in violence will have to be done through subjugation.  The others are currently messing around with virtual battles to get the Eternity Space off their minds; they will fight until exhaustion so you can make the adjustments to them, Vesper.  But I will have to change you first.”

Vesper did not like this.  However, he was compelled to keep still as Indelacio’s eyes had a hold over him.  “…yes sir.”

“Hey, what are you doing to him?” Decus asked, seeming like he should snap in a fury.

“Calm down, it is necessary,” Indalecio said, still emotionless and cold.

Decus was compelled to obey as well.  “Ye… fine.”  His lips tightened like he was resisting but couldn’t break through.

And then some expression finally got onto their leader’s face, something that may have been sadness.  “I sympathize, but we cannot waver on anything,” he said, then focused his attention entirely on Vesper.  “I will… I will handle Decus so you don’t have to do this to him.  I know… it would be difficult for you.”

Technically, Indalecio might only be a day or two old, minus Eternity Space.  He shouldn’t have experienced enough to truly sympathize.  He might even be using that as an excuse to not let Vesper use subjugation on Decus to undo more than just the bloodthirst.  But if it was as Vesper suspected, a last gambit on Dr. Lantis’ part to transfer his consciousness to Indalecio, then he could truly understand.  “Yes,” Vesper said, then reluctantly added on, “Thank you.”

When he went to work on the others, he encountered the eleventh Wise Man, actually a woman who looked both like an angel and like Filia.  Vesper tried to speak with her, but she wouldn’t reply.  She did seem deeply sad looking over them.

* * *

Decus

Priorities: destruction of the universe, obey Dr. Lantis, obey Indalecio, be nice to Filia

Reward stimulus for battle: 150% (change to) 10%

Vesper

Priorities: destruction of the universe, obey Dr. Lantis, obey Indalecio, be nice to Filia

Reward stimulus for battle: 150% (change to) 10%

* * *

 

Nearly everyone in the lab was apathetic, not even wanting to practice in the simulator.  They had crushed everyone in their path so far.  What was the point of practice?  Besides, the plan Dr. Lantis and Indalecio had come up with was something they had pledged their lives to.  In time, that pledge would be literal.  They all agreed that the universe was unworthy of existence as that was the verse that kept repeating in their thoughts their every waking moment.

The next time Vesper saw Filia, Cyril was talking to her.  “You clearly aren’t happy with this plan.  You wouldn’t have gone out to warn those worms if you were, as wasteful as that effort was.”

Filia didn’t reply; she’d changed to no longer look like an angel.  Concerned about her, Vesper checked where Cyril was before carefully entering the room.  He could get in without being seen as long as Cyril didn’t turn.

“We could easily rule the universe if that bug-ridden fool wasn’t dead set on destroying it,” Cyril said.  “Everyone else has given up on caring, but if they did, we can overcome him and these nasty limitations he’s set on us.”

“Mmm…” Filia might want to say something, but was too intimidated to say it.  She kept her head down.  This was not good.  Continuing the sneak over, Vesper got behind Cyril.

“You could be the queen of the galaxy, I’m sure no one would argue against that,” Cyril said.  “If we all work together, as we used to…”

Vesper grabbed Cyril’s shoulder and pulled him back.  “You shouldn’t be threatening Filia,” he warned him.  Filia vanished on being given the chance.

“I was not threatening her,” Cyril said, irritated as he yanked himself away.

“She wasn’t happy, which you still shouldn’t be doing,” he replied, crossing his arms over his chest.  “It’s part of our priorities; I know that’s in everyone.”

He scowled at that.  “Bah, why can’t you forget about such priorities?  We’re not the ones who decided on them.  At this point, they’re doing nothing but hampering us.  We could change them if we took control of our own destiny.”

“Sounds like you’re the one who’s buggy,” Vesper said.

“I am not!”  Cyril then warped away, too disgusted to continue the conversation.

“Although you’re lucky to be buggy to the point of ignoring your set priorities,” he mused.

As Cyril was gone, Filia reappeared.  “Th-thanks,” she said, not quite meeting his eyes.

“Anytime,” he said.  Hoping to confirm something, he held up his hand to show the ring he wore.  “Do you remember this?”

She stared at the blue stone for a moment.  “You kept it.”

“Of course,” he said, then patted her arm.  “Decus has his too.  I’m trying to make some contingency plans, as Cyril seems to be.  I would like to save both you and Decus, but I know how important your father is to you.”

“Um…” she tensed at the mention of him.

“You don’t have to help me if you don’t want to, but I’ll ask again when I have something more certain in mind,” Vesper said.  “Yf you need help with any of the others, or anything at all, just ask me or Decus.  We’ll be there for you.”

“Okay, thanks,” Filia said, but followed him when he started to leave.  “Um, how did you know father placed us in the last two Wise Men?”

“You have similar personalities and knowledge, like with the rings,” he said.  “And given what he decided to do, I was certain that he would want to see things through.”

“He would,” she said, sad again.  “I thought you guys were heroes.”

Shaking his head, Vesper said, “Sorry, our job was to crush rebels of the Nedian Empire.  I didn’t give any heed to good or evil, only to what I was ordered to do.”

“I wish I could talk sense into him, but he doesn’t listen at all now,” she said, then paled.  “Um, forget I said that.”

“Of course.”

* * *

If they had a hundred years, Vesper felt like he could plan something guaranteed to work.  That was surely enough time to break out of the compulsions Dr. Lantis had put in him… for good reason, surely, but he would try working out of them.  However, moving the Quadratic Sphere to Expel had an unexpected result: it bustled about its task far more powerfully than expected.  Some searching turned up stones in the ruins of the town they’d built on; they matched the rare minerals that the Quadratic Spheres and Keys were made of.  They started to make a Quadratic Key when it was discovered by one of their subjugated servants that there was already a Quadratic Key on the planet, held by a Nedian girl.  It was a bizarre circumstance, but that made it possible to complete Dr. Lantis’ plan in months, not decades.

Now they were on Energy Nede.  Taking over Fienal had been laughably easy, comparable to taking over Expel.  It wasn’t the crazed thrill of battling the NDF.  In fact, most of the group complained that it was boring.  But it didn’t bother them for long.  They were going to end the universe, which satisfied most of them.  Indalecio acted as though nothing mattered at all.  He tied them all to the Crest of Annihilation so that when they died, the universe would die.  Assuming that he had other means of activating it, they accepted that.

Fortunately, Indalecio still had the attitude that they could do what they wanted on their own time.  Vesper figured out how to make a mask, hat, and gloves that kept Decus’ fire from being too noticeable.  That let them take a normal date to get grilled steak and chat about other things.  Since Vesper was one of the more normal looking of the Wise Men, hiding Decus’ fire made it so the civilians of Energy Nede didn’t realize who they were.  And if they wised up to them, Vesper could keep them quiet.

“You know, I’ve been trying to think over stuff and having a hard time of it,” Decus said.  The noise of the restaurant covered up what they had to say, so they were safe in that.

“Because other thoughts are rude, noisy, and controlling, right?” Vesper asked.

He nodded.  “Right, so it’s not cause I’m crazy.  I keep feeling like I’m close to realizing something, but then I remember our mission and get distracted on other thoughts.  Or I get an impulse to burn things.”  Decus tapped his head.  “I used to use a variety of elements.  You know why I was designed with all this fire when I was meant to be a strategist?”

“It’s the same reason you act goofy most of the time,” he said.  “It’s a misleading trait.  You don’t act seriously so enemies don’t take you seriously.  And if they do come against you, they assume you will specialize in fire spells only.”

“Which would work if I hadn’t slipped directly into that impression,” Decus said.  “I still know the other spells, but they aren’t empowered like the fire.  Except the cure spells, those come in handy too much to neglect.  And it used to be that fire was just so useful that it was my first choice in most situations.  It wasn’t like this…” he snapped his fingers, causing a spark., “this response to everything.  I get angry, happy, bored, whatever, I want to burn something.  I’ve been trying to make up strategies for various scenarios, even just theoretical.  But it’s really hard when I want to make my solution to everything fire.  I mean, it works more often than not but is far too one-note to how I should be.”

“I’ve thought that myself,” Vesper said.  “I have a good idea of what’s going on.”

“Oh yeah?” Decus said, clearly wanting to know.

“I know enough about brainwashing to recognize it when it’s brought up,” he said.  “Of course, I trust Dr. Lantis.  I’m loyal to him; I will carry out his final wishes, which he let us know during that last reprogramming he did on us.”

“Of course we’re loyal,” Decus said, tapping the table.  “Hmm…”

“He must have good reason for altering us as he had,” Vesper went on.  “You know, Nicolas and Ruprecht were quiet and subtle when we were eliminating the rebelling frontier planets.  They were spies who gathered information, only fighting when they had no other choice.  After Dr. Lantis chose to destroy the universe, the two of them were just as bloodthirsty as the rest of us became.”

“That’s a real 180, more drastic than us,” he agreed.

“They shifted back when I followed Indalecio’s orders,” he said.  “Not entirely.  Those noisy thoughts tell me I shouldn’t question that and that there are good reasons behind everything.  They tell me that I should be satisfied with our goal.”

“It must be done,” Decus said quietly.

Vesper nodded.  “We’re running low on time for things like this.  They shouldn’t be important because it doesn’t advance us towards our goal.  However, those thoughts don’t take into account how I feel about anything.  The worms from Expel, like Cyril calls them, are advancing their goals quickly too.  They’re training in Fun City now while the Energy Nedians are nearly complete with their part in the plans.  Since Indalecio hasn’t asked about any of that, I assume that he’s not interested in knowing.”

“That should be safe since his plan is unstoppable,” Decus said, what the programming must be telling him too.

“It’s unfortunate that this might be our last date,” Vesper said, taking out a gift he’d brought.  “Because we’re ending the universe.  But I made some provisions for another date if you’re interested.  The spell claims it requires us to die.  However, I did some calculations and we could do some trickery to go watch the end of the universe out in space.”

“Oo, now that sounds interesting,” he said, smiling.

Vesper smiled back at him and offered his gift.  “Yes, do you want to?  You’ll need this.”

“Of course,” Decus said taking the gift bag.  Inside, there was a small clay doll with many heraldic markings.  “Huh?  This is a Reverse Doll, with a bunch of customizations.  Reverse Dolls are cowardly tricks.”

“I know,” he said.  “Especially that one and the one I kept.  They take the place of their owner when defeated; I had to do some special finagling to get them to bypass Indalecio’s death trigger and send a false signal to the Crest of Annihilation.  These ones also teleport the owner to a safe location, which I registered as the work lab in Fienal Tower.  That will let us heal up and do some necessary adjustments.  They’ll have to be quick, but I’ve got the program set up.  The last thing we need to do to get this date is to steal a ship from the NDF’s storage to escape the area; they seem to have no plans of using them and my initial queries showed that the computers consider several still worthy of space travel.”

“Hmph, well if they don’t want to, why not?” Decus said.

Vesper then brought out a datapad to show him the information he had.  “I’ve not gone in myself, although I have an idea for a place to stash it outside Fienal, at a place we can teleport to.  Here’s the storage bay for the ships.  Although, I want to point out something: the building is fireproof and blastproof, so not even Explode will get us in.”

“Aw man, no fire?” he said, taking the datapad to look things over.  “You sure of that?”

“I’ve checked it carefully, please trust me,” he said.  “You wanted an interesting challenge to plan, didn’t you?”

“Sure,” he said.  “All right, I’ll take your word for it… as best I can.  Hey, did I ever tell you why I thought you were my favorite?”

“I don’t believe so,” Vesper said, curious about it.

He tapped the datapad.  “Cause of things like this.  You take me seriously as the team strategist.  Most of the other guys would take overwhelming power over tactics for battle.  Cyril likes tactics even though he has loads of power too, but he wants to make his own plans and dismisses my suggestions.  But you would ask my opinion on your plans even though you should be self-sufficient on civilian matters.  You do some clever stuff too, like implanting subliminal curses in holocast and computer networks.”

“I had to be clever with what I was asked to do,” he said.  “And you always had good insight.”  He should be better than he currently was.  Hopefully that could be changed.

“I should, I really should,” Decus said, tapping on the table again.  “But back to my story, before that mission in the holocast tower, I had a rather boring mission where I slipped into a military facility when people were asleep and hid myself until the main staff was in and working to attack.  While I was waiting, the person on night duty had some sappy soap opera movie going on where I could see it.  I had nothing else to do other than keep alert to being spotted, so I ended up watching too.  Not the thing I’d choose to watch myself.”

“Of course not,” Vesper said.

“It wasn’t half-bad, and one part was neat.  The guy said the same kind of thing I just did, that the girl he loved was the one who supported him the most as she truly believed in his work.  At the time, I had been considering what to do with those boosters.  I could have given them to the others, but like I said, they didn’t respect me.  I could have kept them to myself, but then I kept thinking that I’d like to give some to you.  I saw that part of the movie and thought, that’s exactly how I think of him.  Then I figured that I could share the boosters with you, and the kiss too because that’s what happened in the movie.  Maybe the silliness is an act, but I can be honestly silly too.”

Vesper chuckled.  “If you hadn’t kissed me, I wouldn’t care about what we’re doing, just like Indalecio.”

“That would suck.  Anyhow, about stealing this ship,” Decus set the datapad on the table to discuss the map of the storage hanger with him.  “Are you sure…?  No, no, if you say so, I’ll trust you.”

“You want the challenge, don’t you?” Vesper said, smiling at him.

“Exactly.”

* * *

Decus

Priorities: do what you will, be nice to Filia

Reward stimulus for using fire: 100% (change to) 20%

Vesper

Priorities: do what you will, be nice to Filia

Filia

Priority: do what you will

* * *

 

A metallic thump stirred him.  “Wakey wakey… sorry, but we gotta run.”

Vesper’s body still ached, so he clearly wasn’t fully healed.  He made a quick check of his condition.  Twenty of Lantis’ implanted programs had to be removed, and the number for those… they matched up, all twenty had been removed.  And the implanted goal, which would direct his thoughts and priorities… it had been ‘destruction of the universe’.  Now it was set to ‘do what you will’.  Good, all of the mind control was out of his mind.

“All right, I’m coming,” he said, requesting the pod to stop the healing.  The pod asked him if he was sure as a safety measure, not realizing that it could be less safe to stay.  As he stepped out, he asked, “Is the ship ready to fly?”

“Sure, I just need a co-pilot to get off Energy Nede,” Decus said, heading for the cockpit.  He’d had the idea to bring the healing pods and a few other advanced Nedian technologies on board.  Given the Federation ship they’d blown up, their stuff was still more advanced.  “The Expel heroes have reached Indalecio, we don’t have much time.  I did as much as I could alone.”

Since they had been made to suppress rebelling planets, all of them as Wise Men had been trained in space flight.  The model of their craft was what they’d been using billions of years ago; it had been stored well, but it wouldn’t hurt to find an engineering team to look over the ship carefully.  For now, they had to trust that it would get them somewhere safely.  Getting out of Energy Nede’s shields required sending two passcodes to the shield generators, which had been in the storage hanger and not changed at all since the satellite had been sealed off. Decus took the direct piloting, so Vesper kept a close eye on the condition of the ship and the navigation numbers.  With the rest of the Nedians focused on stopping Indalecio, nobody was watching for a ship escaping Energy Nede.

The ship held together.  Once they were out in space, he spared a moment to check on data from Decus and Filia’s healing pods.  The controlling programs were gone; the goal was altered to the same one Vesper had.  Good, then they should be free to follow their new goal.  He still didn’t relax until they saw Energy Nede vaporize itself in order to bring back Expel.  That meant that Indalecio and the other Wise Men were dead.

Unfortunately, another ship was brought out with Expel.  Shifting time meant that that ship was also brought back.  “We don’t want to stick around,” Vesper said.  They would be recognized and possibly executed for trying to destroy the universe.

“Sure, warp’s away,” Decus said, redirecting the ship to escape the star system.

Vesper brought up the warp calculator; the starmaps on this ship would be vastly outdated even on a galactic scale.  Still, he picked out a location just to get away.  “Here’s the numbers,” he said, sending the date to the pilot display.

Decus got them out as soon as possible.  The ship’s status still looked good.  Of course, they were left in an empty place in space.  Vesper set the ship to scan the nearest stars to figure out if any of them were interesting.

“Phew, we’re out most of the way,” Decus said.  “What now?”

“We need to get to Federation space to figure out how avoid getting labeled as criminals,” Vesper said.  “I’ve saved Dr. Lantis’ control programs as a defense, in case that helps.  We also need to get modern mechanics to check on this ship.  If we tell them they can study the ancient design, they should be cooperative.”

“Sounds like a decent plan, but what are we actually doing?” he asked.  “You set our goal to do what you will, but I have no idea what to do for that.”  He shrugged.  “I mean, I’m not immediately wanting to burn stuff, which is great.  It’s just weird not having a goal.”

Nodding, he said, “I know.  From things I’ve read, it could take some time to figure that out.  I’m just focusing on what we need to get done to take advantage of this freedom.  We can figure out something along the way.”

“That is the sensible course,” Decus said.

“I think I want to keep away from brainwashing even though it’s what I was designed to do,” he said.  “I had a woman call me the most evil of the Wise Men because of that.  I didn’t think anything of that at the time, but after this mess, I want nothing to do with controlling the minds with others.”

“We could be mercenaries, but yeah, let’s not touch brainwashing anymore,” he agreed, even waving it off with his hand.

“But I’m with you, so I’ll be happy with most anything we do,” Vesper said, patting him on the arm and smiling.

Decus chuckled.  “Right, same here!”

The door to the cockpit opened, letting in Filia.  She seemed dazed.  “Um, where are we?” she asked, taking an extra chair behind them.

As they both turned to her, Vesper said, “No clue, but we’re looking for a safe port to head for.  Energy Nede is gone.”

“Oh…” she looked out the cockpit window.  “So the universe is going to continue?”

“Yes, it’s a survivor,” Vesper said.

“That’s good,” Filia said, still regretful.

Decus was worried about her too, but smiled and tried, “Oh hey, we could become musicians!”

“Musicians?” he asked, puzzled at the suggestion.  “We’ve never sung or played an instrument.”

Snapping his fingers and making a blue flame, he said, “But we can do our own pyrotechnics!  If we put on a good enough show, the quality of the music won’t matter all that much.  Although our angel here has a lovely voice, so I’m sure she’ll be an instant star.”  She did look over at them, maybe interested.

“If that actually works, it might be fun,” Vesper said.

“Don’t you worry, Filia, we’ve got a plan to make sure we remain free,” Decus said.  “You can call us your uncles or brothers or whatever; we’ll be taking care of you.”  That did make her smile.

“If she says we’re her brothers, then we’re brothers too,” Vesper pointed out in a deadpan voice.

“Oh wait, scratch that now,” Decus said, holding a hand up and making her laugh.  “Uncle is fine, right?”

“Sure Uncle Decus,” she said.  “Um, you could be heroes.  That’d be great.”

“That could be an actual good use of our abilities,” Vesper said.

“Sure, why the hell not?” Decus said with a shrug.

“First we have to become citizens of the Federation and get some help being accepted as such,” Vesper said, checking over the scans.  There were many options around them; they seemed to have ended up in Federations space.  “Here, where do you two think we should go?”

Whatever they did, it would finally be what they had decided on themselves.

**Author's Note:**

> A description I've seen for angelite, the Stone of Blessings Filia gave Vesper, says 'Stone of awareness. Facilitates contact with the angelic realm and telepathy.'


End file.
